How to Use the Flash on a Camcorder

Most of the shots that you’ll take with your camcorder will be taken in low-light conditions. Many well-lit indoor locations are only well-lit for the human eye. Camcorders will record a much poorer quality image, characterized by grain or noise over the darker areas of the picture. One of the ways to overcome this is to use a flash.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Owner's manual
• Flash (built-in or an external flash unit)
• Camcorder

1. Read your owner's manual. Familiarize yourself with all of your camcorder’s features.

2. Find out if your camcorder has a built-in flash. The flash works by emitting light for shooting inside a building or in low-light conditions. Many camcorders have a built-in flash with a limited lighting range. You may require an external flash unit to boost the range (see below).

3. Find out if your camcorder has a flash connector (called a “flash sync” or “hot shoe”). This attaches an external flash unit to your camcorder and automatically synchronizes it with your shutter. Depending on your camcorder, external flash units may also be attached via brackets. External flash units may become necessary when the built-in flash doesn’t provide enough light for the shoot.

4. Check your flash settings. Usually, these are On, Off or Auto. This determines if your flash is on, switched off or automatically set to switch on in low-light situations.

5. Use Red-Eye Reduction. Red-Eye Reduction refers to a special mode of flash that helps prevent the appearance of red eyes on people in the picture. This is a common feature in most current camcorders.

6. Switch between different flash modes if they are available. Many current camcorders have preset flash modes to handle night, indoor, outdoor and sports settings. These can be quickly set to accommodate a variety of normal shooting situations.

Tips & Warnings

• Built-in flash units have an average range of about 10 feet.
• Using a built-in flash can result in flat, shadow-less shots that lack depth and quality due to the close proximity of the flash to the lens.
• The capacity of camcorders to work in low-light settings is measured in lux. Lux measures the amount of light falling on a photo subject. A low-light rating of 10 lux is the average for most camcorders.
• Buy reputable camcorders that state lux is “measured by the EIA standard.” The Electronics Industry Association (EIA) has set the standard for measuring lux in camcorders as EIA-639.

[Take1Cincy]

on 7/23/2008 Lighting for a camcorder is not called a flash. Photography cameras have a flash! The lights that are built in on camcorders really don't do much of anything at all. Buy an external camcorder light of 50 watts. You will be happy!